“Hello Q. Got any special gear for this mission for me? “. Q looked and sighed. “After you crashing the Aston and losing the laser beam Rolex in the midst of the current austerity squeeze not so much. What happened to the rocket Launching Nikon by the way ?”
“Boom and bust Q”
“But anyway” said Q handing him a Halina Super-Mini.
Once there was a legendary Japanese Camera maker famed for its detailed very compact cameras. But in 1988 they went very large with a camera with a passing resemblance to a star cruiser.
That camera was the Olympus AZ-300 Superzoom (aka Infinity Zoom 300 (US) and IZM-300). It would become one of the cameras that defined the term bridge.
Regular readers will know I have a love for those cheap ‘n cheerful Lo-Fi cameras that other reviewers wouldn’t touch with a barge-pole. But even for me there are some pretty inexcusable garbage that tries to pass themselves off as being a camera. Here’s my top 10 plus some views of others in what cameras you really want to avoid.
We have some surprises as we go from Halina to Leica in this list. But do you agree and what would you add ?
You’ve got to give Voigtländer the credit for some very gorgeous cameras. But then again as the longest serving camera make in the world that’s not a surprise. But how does this mid 70’s simple 110 camera that I got for a quid match up to the expectations ?
As the Poundland Challenge 2019 has proved again you can actually buy a lot for a quid. So why don’t we take 2 AF compacts for a walk that cost around a quid and see what you get for your buck.
“The nice thing about the Halina 35x is you’re not likely to get mugged for it and if you do you can use it as a deadly weapon.” The poor Hong Kong made 35x is the butt of many a joke and scorn in the camera world.
But this 1959 “Empire Made” viewfinder did sell rather well and has cult following amongst some. So is it really all that bad?
Since my last posting irregular update a lot has been happening both in the world of film and in the wider world. This post is a bit Bond themed with news that Bond 25 inches ever closer with news on the new Villain and confirmation the the Fantastic Phoebe Waller-Bridge will be co-re-writing the script. So grab your Martini (shaken not stirred) and pull up a seat.
Too often I have to do a review based on just a couple of rolls. But some cameras hang a round longer and I thought it might be worth revisiting those. We begin with the my Superheadz Wide and Slim, a clone of the Vivitar Wide and Slim (VUWS). This is often seen as one of the best Lo-Fi cameras still made
But does it deserve that ? And why you should by a a Black one ?
Last year’s Yashica Y35 launch led to one of the biggest outpouring of anger the photography community has ever seen. Whilst the Y35 wasn’t as bad some the vitriol, it was far from perfect. So there was some surprise when rumours of a Yashica branded film. But they’ve now pushed it even further with the launch of a Kickstarter for 2 new films, an analogue camera and the promise of more.
My apologies as this is way late but it has been a busy month as you’ll see. This post we’ll have a couple of trips away to discuss some new & old cameras and why I’m probably never buying Lomography 120 film ever again. But worse still it looks like the Lomography Film is now dead on the UK High Street too.
Oh and some other worthy reviews to check out and a DIY project for the darkroom bunnies.